UNITED NATIONS, May 30 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday announced the designation of Yiping Zhou of China as his Envoy on South-South Cooperation, said a statement issued here by Ban's spokesperson.

Since December 2004, Zhou has been the Director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), within the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), leading United Nations system-wide promotion and coordination of South-South cooperation in the global South, according to the statement.

He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Cooperation South -- one of UNDP's signature development journals, said the statement.

Prior to this, Zhou served as Deputy Director and Senior Policy Adviser of the Special Unit for South-South Cooperation from 1997 to 2004; Regional Program Officer of UNDP's Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific from 1992 to 1997; and Project Management Officer at the UN Office for Project Services from 1985 to 1992.

Prior to joining the United Nations system, Zhou worked as Policy Officer in the Department of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade of China from January 1980 to October 1984, and as diplomat in the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations from November 1984 to October 1985.

Born in 1955, Zhou is an economist who graduated from Fudan University in 1977 and pursued further applied academic research and studies at the Canberra College of Advanced Education in Australia from 1978 to 1979.